Archive for the ‘las vegas’ Category

Here’s a blue bird. Well, it’s not a real blue bird. It’s more of a statue. Yeah, that’s it – a statue. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in our living room, and part of my famous Las Vegas, Bird, Art, and Statue series.

Very long time, no post. Lots has happened, but I’ve been documenting life more on my Facebook page. Still, it behooves me to drop in here occasionally. I’m sure I have no more Loyal Readers, but that’s okay. It’s more for me, anyway.

Greetings from warm, sunny Tucson, Arizona! We came here to help Corey celebrate his 22nd birthday, which is today. Happy birthday, Corey! Marisa, his Special Friend lives here, and Joanne wanted to give him a visit as a birthday gift. They both seem to be enjoying the visit.

Unfortunately, Joanne is no longer here. She started her new job at Caesars Entertainment a couple weeks ago and couldn’t be away from home. She drove here with Corey and me on Saturday and flew back home last night. Short visit for her. I’m staying here today to take Corey and Marisa out to Birthday Dinner and then driving home alone tomorrow. Corey’s staying until early next week.

Not much else to talk about right now. One of the reasons I never seem to take the time to write here is that it seems like such a daunting task to write down everything that’s happening. So I won’t. See my Facebook page for more details.

Here’s the sign from the old Stardust hotel/casino. Very futuristic. Extremely groovy. Totally out of sight. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during our visit to the Neon Museum on Christmas Eve, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Motel Sign series.

Been a pretty good few days. Also been a tough day for Joanne. Today was her last day at work for Aristocrat. Not good for her, but I have a feeling the aftermath will be very good for her indeed. I’m very excited to see where she lands.

Speaking of work changes, my partner John and I had a discussion this evening about the future of Photodocumentor. We haven’t been able to sell it. Nothing is happening. I am unable to find people who might use it, let alone market to them. I don’t know how to do that. I know how to be an engineer, not a marketer/salesman. The software is useful, though, and I think it might have a chance of catching on. We’ve decided to make it free from now on and hope it finds a home with a few people and spreads by word of mouth. There might be money to be made in related services. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to support John by keeping the website up to date and I’ll go back to what I really wanted to do when I retired: iOS programming. I’m excited about that and am starting to work immediately. I’ll do some reeducation to bring my iOS skills back up to snuff first, update Morse Trainer to add some critical features and maybe some in-app purchases. Then I’ll take it from there. It’s exciting to finally have a professional direction that I really want to take.

In the meantime, things are good, Joanne and I are happy to have a substantial amount of time to spend together, and the future looks bright.

We went to a party at the home of good friends on New Year’s Eve. We had a great time! We intended to go home a bit early to avoid the drunk drivers, but we were forced to stay by the amount of fun we were having. We played some card games, kissed at midnight, waved sparklers around, talked to a lot of people, and generally enjoyed ourselves. 10/10, would party again.

Here’s Baymax sitting with me and getting a bit of rest. He’s been unusually interested in sitting right up close to me lately. His normal pattern is to hang out nearby but not touch anybody. Not the last couple of days, though. I kind of like it. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Lots of new stuff. But first, happy 38th anniversary to Shannon and me. I still love you. I still miss you.

It’s interesting to me that I can be so happy and yet still feel this frequent longing about which I can do nothing. Joanne has told me she’s making an effort to keep the happy memories and good feelings alive and discard the things that make her sad. That’s a good idea, I think, and I’m trying to do the same thing with some success. There’s not much negative to let go of other than the hard parts of Shannon’s illness during our last year together. And even that was such a love-filled year that I’m having a hard time wanting to ignore it. Lots of suffering, but lots of love.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas. Gave a few gifts, received a few gifts. Are a bunch of delicious food. Had Paul and Melissa over a couple times. We enjoyed the whole season. Now the tree is down and all the decorations are put away. We’re getting ready for a nice New Year’s Eve party with friends and then we focus on 2017.

Joanne’s job is ending on January 3rd, sadly. The executive she serves has decided to leave the company and she’s not being replaced. So Joanne’s job no longer exists. She’s busily searching for her next place. It’s a hard time of year for a job search and it’s not going as quickly as it ought to. We’re both hoping that changes in January.

She hasn’t needed to be in the office much the past couple of weeks. I’m enjoying having her at home a lot more. We’re cooking more and just spending a lot of time together. It’s been like a vacation and I’ll be sorry to see it end. But I’m sure she’ll be happy to see her paychecks continue, so she needs to work. Poor Joanne.

Mark was a bit worried about how his semester was going to turn out this fall. He had a couple of classes that turned out to be quite frustrating. Shortly before Christmas, the semester ended and he learned that he did well in every class. Great job, Mark!

Here’s Baymax helping me fold my clothes this afternoon. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPad-cam, taken at home today, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Not a lot new here. I’ve gotten newly reinvigorated regarding a couple of things lately and have been fairly busy doing them. What are these things, you ask? I hear your plea.

First, work. I’ve started working on Photodoc again. I must confess that I’ve been less than excited about it for quite a while, but I feel a new enthusiasm now. We’ve scheduled an online training seminar to start in early December and we’ll see whether that works. Let’s hope so!

I’m also ready to start working on iOS apps again. Morse Trainer definitely needs to be updated. I’m thinking seriously about making a premium version or maybe the ability to upgrade via in-app purchase. It’s been pretty popular and there just might be a way to monetize it. First off, though: getting it back into the store! It got kicked out because it hasn’t been updated in a while. Must fix that right away!

I’m also starting to do a bit of thinking about an Apple TV app and something for the watch. Might as well, assuming I can think of something interesting.

Second, cooking/baking. I’ve finally gotten sick of eating out extremely often and heating up frozen things on the rare nights we don’t bring something in or eat out. I’m working on menu planning, side dishes, and getting everything to hit the table at the same time. And then I can think about becoming a really good cook. There’s plenty of room for improvement and I hope to do that.

In the last few days, I’ve baked a loaf of raisin bread and a lemon bundt cake. Baked the cake today, so I have no idea how it tastes. The bread was done during the weekend and I think it was delicious! There’s still a bit left; I hope to finish it before it goes bad. In any case, I’m planning to bake another loaf within the next day or two.

I haven’t flown in a couple of weeks. I’m planning to go tomorrow. The weather should be good for lift. Wish me luck for a long flight, Loyal Readers!

Here’s Baymax hitching a ride on Mark’s backpack. Mark can’t seem to keep the cat off of his shoulders these days. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in our living room the other day, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Pet series.

Wow. It has been a LOOOOOONG time since I wrote here. Way too many things have happened to discuss them all. We’ve traveled quite a bit, we’ve lived our lives, we’ve been happy, we’ve been sad, and we’ve been busy. I wish I had a lot more to say about it, but I don’t. I hope to not let this much grass grow under my blog feet again. I had never missed an entire month before now, even though I needed to use the Wonders of WordPress from time to time. I’m not doing that this time. No posts for March through October 2016. Deal with it, Loyal Readers.

If there are any Loyal Readers left, which I doubt. That’s okay. This is just supposed to be a chronicle of my life. Which it is. Sort of.

Thanksgiving is coming up. Andy and JaNell are coming for a few days beforehand and then going on to visit Katy and Cliff the day before the holiday. That’s the day Joanne, Mark, and I leave for Michigan. While A & J are here, we’re having a pseudo Thanksgiving dinner the prior Sunday. I’m looking forward to that visit and to seeing my sisters, my brother Tony, and my dad in Michigan.